Note: This is a slightly revised version of the cryptic I brought
to the 2000 American
Crossword Puzzle Tournament in Stamford, CT; this version
originally appeared in the May 2000 edition of the Enigma, the
main publication of the National
Puzzlers' League.
Members of the NPL are generally known by "noms" (pseudonyms); "Trick"
and "QED" below are the noms of my roommates at that tournament, and
"Ucaoimhu" is my own nom. "10C" is NPL-talk for the tenth edition of
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

Qualifying But Not Round

by Kevin Wald

I recently attended the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, where I
roomed with QED and Trick. I wanted to write them a welcome-to-the-tournament
cryptic, but as a rookie, and the least constructorly person in the room,
I didn't really feel qualified. So instead I wrote this cryptic, where the
across entries (all of which are altered) are just divided evenly among the
three of us. Trick's entries are extra-wily, QED's come to mathematical
conclusions, and Ucoaimhu's . . . I mean, Uhaoimcu's . . . oh, never
mind.

All but three of the clue solutions and grid entries are 10C, 10C-findable,
or 10C-inferable. When the puzzle has been completed, the shaded squares
(read from top left to bottom right) will give an abbreviated description
of someone who would be very well qualified to provide words of welcome.

ACROSS

1. Near the middle of marathon
5. So crab is mixed with sugar and starch
10. Venison supplier includes a bit of loin portion
13. Time speaks of us
14. He's imprisoned by stern judge again
15. Fool mostly eats road-kill
16. They grow things that remove hair in your ears
18. Overturned hero's vehicle
19. One exiled some rebellious teenagers
21. Nun serenely shows what Noah's world was once like
23. Santa delivers more than one size of model train
25. Drink last shots of tequila and coke
28. On a westbound vessel
31. It's unclear why 007 takes orders from the A-Team, perhaps?
32. Chain letters
33. Mexican is endowed with power -- psychic power
34. How to start a radio station in the east or west
35. Picard's very abbreviated hairpiece?